Crossroads, Part Ⅰ
Crossroads, Part Ⅰ is an episode of the TV series, Battlestar Galactica, and aired during the show's third season. Plot President Laura Roslin and "Athena" share the same vision of chasing Hera Agathon through the ancient opera house on Kobol, where they also encounter Caprica Six. At Joe's Bar, Colonel Saul Tigh and Samuel T. Anders share a different form of vision, ethereal music that only the two of them are able to hear. Just before Former President Dr. Gaius Baltar's trial is set to begin, Cassidy, the prosecutor, refuses Roslin's request that Baltar be tried for conspiring with the Cylons. Meanwhile, Baltar is visited in the brig by a woman who asks him to bless her child. He refuses, but she reaffirms her belief in him nonetheless. Although the fleet is nearing the Ionian Nebula, and has not encountered the Cylons for weeks, Admiral William Adama is unconvinced that the fleet has truly outrun them. His suspicions are confirmed when Racetrack's trailing Raptor narrowly dodges an attack by a massive Cylon fleet. When Col. Tigh questions Caprica Six, she informs him that the Cylons had found a way to track the fleet's Refinery Ship. The interrogation turns to blows when Six takes her imaginary Baltar's suggestion to bring up Tigh's wife. Shaken, Tigh has Six shackled. At the beginning of the trial, Cassidy's opening arguments rest on Baltar having been a failed leader and the devastating loss of 5,197 people on New Caprica. Defense attorney Romo Lampkin opens by condemning Baltar in the harshest terms, finally obtaining an unruly shout from a member of the gallery. Lampkin uses the outburst to turn his arguments abruptly into the notion that Baltar is being railroaded to execution and that the trial is being held as a formality over top of the carnal desire to punish Baltar beyond any blame he deserved. Lampkin also takes advantage of Roslin's arrival at the courtroom to suggest that she would have pursued confrontation with the Cylons, and gotten more people killed than Baltar had by unconditional surrender. The trial moves further into Baltar's favor when Col. Tigh takes the witness stand and admits to masterminding the New Caprica Police graduation bombing (seen in "Occupation"), with Baltar as the primary target. After Cassidy opens up the subject by suggesting that his wife, Ellen Tigh, is another victim of Baltar, Lampkin pushes him into eventually confessing to killing Ellen. Lampkin also coaxes Tigh into admitting his drinking problem, and Tigh further degrades his own position when he again hears the ethereal music and angrily yells for it to be turned off. He is effectively barred as a witness after repeatedly admitting that he would do or say anything to see Baltar executed. When Roslin herself takes the witness stand, she confirms for Lee Adama that Baltar helped save her life during her bout with cancer a year beforehand, and later also confirms, over the objections of Adama, that she had resumed taking medication because her cancer had returned. As the chamalla has hallucinogenic side effects, Roslin's credibility is seriously damaged. During a recess in the trial, Romo Lampkin asks Lee Adama to consider that his role in the trial may get him expelled from the "aristocracy" of the Adama family in the fleet. Soon afterwards, Lee argues with his father over the principle of trying Baltar. Admiral Adama confirms that the trial is a formality and that he already feels Baltar is guilty. He also condemns Lee for the damage done to Col. Tigh, though Lee had no knowledge of Ellen's death, much less that Saul murdered her. In disgust, Lee resigns his commission, and Adama almost happily accepts it. Later, in their quarters, Anastasia Adama takes Lee's role in the trial as the final straw to break their troubled marriage, packs her things and leaves over his pleas to stay. On Colonial One, Roslin is badgered with questions from reporters about the resurgence of her cancer. Tory Foster, suffering from constantly hearing the music in the same way as Col. Tigh, angrily tells the reporters to stop prying into Roslin's personal affairs, earning her a private reprimand from Roslin. On Galactica's bridge, Felix Gaeta and Helo review a plan to use the refinery ship as a decoy to lure the Cylons off course, and brood over a gathering storm Production Writing This two-parter went through a considerable re-write in regards to the trial itself and some scenes left-over were moved to the second part. The original plan was to have Lt. Gaeta's testimony take place in this episode, and for the defence to prove him to be a perjurer due to a time-stamp on the death-list going against Gaeta's known whereabouts. In fear of the case collapsing, the prosecution would then share with Apollo a video-tape containing footage of President Baltar executing a Sagittaron during a raid on New Caprica. When director Michael Rymer felt the Sagittaron storyline was superfluous to what was already known in Season 3, examples of anti-Sagittaron racism amongst Colonial military personnel was largely cut with the exception of The Woman King. In touching the second version of the script, the role of Apollo in the trial was lessened, as Moore felt it wasn't so believable that the assistant to Remo Lampkin, an actual lawyer, be doing so much of the job. The idea of Roslin revealing her cancer in trial came about due to a feeling by the writers the character had become an irrelevance in much of Season 3. The initial idea for this was that Apollo would witness Roslin reveal it to Admiral Adama in confidence and then come to the rational conclusion she is also taking hallucinogenic drugs again which would make statements she gave as evidence inadmissible. This was changed to Apollo finding out she is taking drugs in her tea and outing her for that, with her revealing her cancer there. Directing The trail scene was problematic for directing purposes. The cast and crew had no familiarity with court-room scenes, and had to make a number of re-shots for continuity purposes so that all the extras remain in the same seating positions for each camera angle. A number of extras were having problems staying awake due to the time it took. Casting The role of Cassidy was initially to be an older professor, but during casting Moore decided he wanted a female part instead. Post-production During post-production, it was decided Cassidy's opening argument be condensed. Initially she was to start with the 51,000,000,000 population of the Twelve Colonies and continue drawing more numbers to illustrate the dwindling population over the years. The white-board was digitally altered so that only the population that settled on New Caprica and those that escaped be shown. Deleted scenes * Athena and Roslin eye one another in the trial after experiencing the same dream. As Roslin goes outside to get some water, Athena follows and reminds her that a Cylon (herself) once saved her life. * Extended version of Roslin taking the witness stand, where she describes her experiences on New Caprica. This was cut out because it was simply information the fans already knew. * The Roslin sequences after her cancer reveal were actually written for Part II, with her witness stand being the finale. This led to a continuity error with some characters wearing different clothes, as the trial was intended to take place over two days. Cast Sources External links *Moore podcast *Bonus podcast *IMDb page Category:Season 3 episodes